


Grayscale

by FlyingShadow09



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Dark, Dysfunctional Family, Edited Repost, Evil Dumbledore, Evil Voldemort, F/F, F/M, Family Drama, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, M/M, On Hold, Past Abuse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-23
Updated: 2015-11-22
Packaged: 2018-04-10 18:20:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4402367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlyingShadow09/pseuds/FlyingShadow09
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Wizarding World is much darker than Harry had ever been lead to believe.  He starts questioning a world that almost everyone he met had presented as very black and white.  The time is coming for Harry to chose a side: will he follow Dumbledore like everyone expects, betray the light as some fear, or is it possible that there is a way to do what needs to be done without having to give himself over to Dumbledore's manipulations?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Boy Lost

**Author's Note:**

> This is an altered repost...the only chapter to remain the same is this one...I am working on getting the work back up...It will essentially be the same story with the same characterization as before, but I realized having this happen in the order/time when I had them happened messed up the overall storyline. I would like to apologize for not just posting a notice and deleting the erroneous chapters and instead deleting and reposting the work.

It was an accident...maybe...probably...he couldn't quite remember, it all happened so fast. Phineas hadn't meant for Orion to die, truly he hadn't. Or had he? he wasn't sure anymore.

He'd been angry...and scared. He didn't like the way Orion, his grandfather, touched him when he smelled so strongly of Ogden's finest. He had pushed him away and then he'd fallen...Then Orion was dead and it was Phineas' fault. It had been an accident though...Hadn't it?

They'd been at the opposite end of the stair way. If Orion hadn't consumed an entire bottle of the liquor he wouldn't have stumbled awkwardly down the hall or tumbled down the flight of stairs...He wouldn't have broken his neck and died.

Phineas stood at the top of the stair looking in horror at his grandfather. The demonic specter that came to his room at night wouldn't bother him anymore...but Phineas hadn't wished him dead...Had he?

Was he a murderer at 8 1/2 years old? Was what his grandparents (and the rest of the wizarding world) believed of him true? Was he a danger to everyone around him simply because he was a lycan?

It was true that no one else his age would have been able to push Orion so hard...Maybe they were right...Phineas was evil by the virtue of his birth. He'd been born bad, plain and simple.

He couldn't bring himself to move. This was the third (fourth? did Voldemort turning to ash count?) dead body he'd seen. His parents had sent him into hiding with his Godfather, Uncle James. But, Peter (once called Uncle as well, but not anymore) had betrayed them all and told Voldemort where they were hiding. James had died at the door to the house. Lily at the one to the nursery. Phineas had been prepared to die as well. He held his baby god brother in his arms and curled around the one year old with his back to the demonic man. The man cast the killing curse at him and Phineas felt pain like never before rocket through his body. He looked up at the mirror in time to see a surprised look pass over Voldemort's face as he crumbled to dust. The resulting explosion broke the mirror. It fell and cut Harry's forehead. An odd light darted into the baby's open cut and it sealed.

Had Phineas killed Voldemort too? Was he just born wrong? Is that why everyone around him had bad things happen to them? Everything was just so confusing to the young boy who was still frozen at the top of the stairs looking down at his dead grandfather's body in shock.

Walburga finally (it had only been thirty seconds but it had felt like hours to Phineas) emerged from the kitchen to see what had crashed down the stairs. She screamed at the sight of her husband's dead body and looked up at her grandson standing at the top of the stairs.

"You killed him!" she screeched. Phineas just nodded...so he was a murderer then, that cleared some things up...he was bad apparently. Was he any different than the death eaters that ran around killing people? Had it really been an accident?

"I know where things like you belong!" She yelled, "Come along, I won't tolerate your presence for another second!" She grabbed his arm and dragged him to the fire place. Still in shock Phineas just let himself be towed into the floor network. He didn't even hear what destination she yelled.

"This thing is a murderous Lycanite! He killed his own Grandfather!" She informed the man behind the desk. Phineas was thrown into a cell and she left.

Still, it had been an accident...hadn't it?

 


	2. An Odd Encounter

It had been terrifying. Harry wondered if this was a taste of what the War against Voldemort had been like. He worried what these events meant if you added them together with his dream and Trelawney's prophecy at the end of last year. It seemed the peace that had surrounded to wizarding world would soon be entirely shattered.

"Harry!" he heard the Weasleys shouting his name and began walking toward them. He felt around for his wand but couldn't find it...He'd dropped it. Now what would happen? that had been the only wand that would bond with him. If it was lost or broken Harry wasn't sure how he'd continue to do magic.

He waited until he could see it was the Weaseleys before responding (you never know, there were spells to replicate other people's voices after all). "Here I am!" He was instantly surrounded by the large family and Hermione as they all expressed either relief at his safety (Mr. Weasley and his children) or scolded him for not managing to stay with the group (Mrs. Weasley and Hermione).

In the next second screaming could be heard all around them and a shape appeared in the sky made of smoke. It was a skull with a snake around it and coming out of the mouth.

"What is it?" Harry asked. He didn't know where he'd seen it before, but it felt familiar.

"That," Bill responded (over his mother's "don't worry about it dear"), "is the Dark Mark. Symbol of the Death Eaters and You-Know-Who."

If the occasion hadn't been so serious Harry would have been tempted to say 'No I don't' as he often was when faced with the idea of speaking like that. It was a sign of just how tense everything was that the thought of responding in such a way hadn't even entered his mind at the time.

They didn't get long to think on what the dark mark appearing in the sky meant when someone approached the clearing that they were standing in. He was a small man (probably 5 feet tall at best) and painfully thin as well. He wore a beat up black three piece suit with matching black belstaff coat (which was in much better condition than the coat) Around his neck was a purple scarf. His hands had matching purple leather gloves on them and in his gloved hands he held a familiar wand.

"You," He stated slowly while looking directly into Harry's eyes, Harry was struck by the fact that the young man before him (at least Harry thought he was young. He felt both young and old simultaneously somehow) had copper colored irises, "dropped this back there." He spoke with an odd accent. It didn't match the dialects of anywhere in particular. It seemed to have aspects of French, Italian, Russian, and Arabic all at once.

He held the wand out to Harry for him to take. "Thank you," Harry replied. The small man had at least 30 scars running in all directions on his face. Perhaps he was a werewolf like Professor Lupin had been. However, if he reminded Harry of anyone it would have been his Godfather, Sirius Black. Perhaps the fact that this man was so similar to both his Godfather and his favorite professor was the reason that the odd man felt familiar. That didn't seem right, though, to Harry there had to be something else.

In the distance, directly under the Dark Mark, shouting began. Without another word the man spun on one of his booted heals (the boots, like the belstaff coat were in excellent condition) and disappeared the way he had come.

Harry looked at those around him and everyone seemed in varying degrees of wariness of the odd man who had returned his wand. All except Charlie that is. Ron's dragon handling brother had a look that managed to convey both heart break and horror on his face. Harry thought for a moment that the second eldest Weasley boy was going to chase after the man but then he had sighed in a resigned fashion.

The group made their way over to the shouting under the Dark Mark to see what had happened. There was a man unconscious on the ground. In the chaotic shouting Harry could make out things like "Supposed to be dead." and "Black wasn't the first then." Uniformed Aurors surrounded the man (Harry wasn't sure if their intention was to protect the man or to keep him contained...probably both).

The man was quickly put in some type of restraints and tied to a stretcher. A tall, bald, swarthy man seemed to be in charge as he assured everyone, "We will get to the bottom of this...I won't rest until I find out exactly how all of this happened. Especially how Barty Crouch Jr. Managed to escape when he's listed as dead." Another man was quickly arrested as well. Both were lead away.

His mind reeling with all that occurred, Harry followed everyone else back to their tent.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In the end I've decided to try to mesh my two versions of Grayscale together...hopefully third times a charm.


	3. Dragonhandler Leaving

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Percy

Percy laid awake staring at the ceiling of the tent and while listening to his two elder brothers' conversation.  He would have let them know that he was awake too, except he knew that Charlie was quite upset about the man that they met in the woods.  Percy could tell how serious it was by the fact that Charlie had remained silent during the whole of the trip back to the tent and didn't say a word when their mother told everyone that there would be no further conversation about that night's attack as it was far past time for bed.

Bill had waited for everyone to be asleep before whispering "Was that really him?" to Charlie.  The only reason Percy had heard the quiet question was because Bill, Charlie, and he had beds to one side of the tent while the twins had the other.  Ron, Ginny, and Harry had been forced to move into his parents' part of the tent 'Just in Case.'

"Yes," Charlie's voice responded in a distant and sorrowful tone, "I never deluded myself into thinking he was leading a fun life, but I never..."

"I know," Bill responded with compassion, "Is your bond still there?"  

Percy had to think about that question for a moment.  Then he remembered a dark night when he found his generally up beat brother crying after a nightmare.  It was raining and the wind was beating a tree against their bedroom window at The Burrow. It was the first time such an occurrence had happened since Bill had moved to Egypt.  He knew that Bill usually sat down next to their brother and wrapped his arm around him and whispered something to Charlie, which meant that Bill was at least somewhat familiar with the cause of Charlie's nightmares.  When Charlie had started to calm down Percy found himself asking what was wrong, Charlie had responded in a despair filled tone that his mate was gone...he was missing and he could feel the pain through the bond on dark nights.  Selfishly, not wanting to hear his brother speak anymore in that tone, Percy had asked no more about the cause of the nightmares, despite his burning curiosity, but instead sat next to Charlie with his hand of his larger brother's shoulder next time he had a nightmare.  Percy held himself perfectly still hoping to finally learn about his brother's mysterious mate.

"Yes," Charlie's voice broke, "I don't understand.  Why didn't he even talk to me?"

"Phineas must have something he needs to do," Bill responded in the same comforting tone he used after Charlie had a nightmare.

"I know," Charlie said in a firm tone and Percy could hear him moving about, "I'm going to go after him."

"Charlie," Bill responded, "Where will you even start looking?  He could be anywhere by now."

"I don't know,"  Percy could distinctly hear the sound of Charlie lacing and tying his boots, "I just have to.  Bill, my whole life since we last saw each other I felt life there was a hole going straight through me.  When we were really little I had the hope that it was just until we met again at school.  Then you sent that letter home saying that he wasn't at Hogwarts and that his cousin Tonks didn't even know what had become of him.  That made the nightmares of pain and torment I had so often real.  Suddenly I knew that al those things were probably happening to him.  I moved to Romania because it was the first place I heard someone speak remotely similar to one of his torturers,  I thought it was very likely that I was moving closer to him.  Now I know that he's here, in the UK.  I have to take that chance, I can't keep living knowing that I could be trying to find him."

"What about your job?" Bill asked, "I understand what you are saying, but if you just run off into the night you could lose the job you love, not to mention how worried everyone will be."

"This is more important than a job." Charlie said firmly as he started walking towards the entrance to the tent.

Almost without giving himself permission Percy found himself sitting up and saying, "I understand Charlie, good luck."  Before blushing when he realized that by saying that he was admitting to listening in on their conversation.

Charlie quickly walked back over and hugged them both tightly before saying, "I'll write, I'm not going to just disappear.  I'll send Perce a letter every Wednesday and Bill one every Sunday.  I just have to do this."

Bill nodded, "I hope you find him." Bill seemed to debate with himself a moment before adding, "He might not be who we remember him to be."

"I'm not who I was either," Charlie shrugged, "He's a part of me and I am a part of him.  We are one, I have no need to fear him."  With that Charlie smiled briefly before slipping out of the tent.


End file.
